The Ute

[Pasty]

here we have the start of the Ute.

A simple FPV utility plane... sole purpose.... fun!

Key Criteria:-

Steerable undercarriage (trike)
Be able to carry a payload in addition to its normal flight gear.
Short take off and landing.
Hardy.
Simple to maintain.
Stable.
Controllable.
Wide speed range (particularly good slow speed handling).

She goes together a little something like this...




Sides with wing saddle cut out.




All the fuz parts




Bottom on




Other side and top on




and heres a wing I made earlier




corners rounded




Stab, elevator, fin and rudder cut... looking something like it!

[FPVSteve]

Looks great mate, where do you get your depron from? Fancy building one of the RCPowers F-22s with the boy.

[Pasty]

Its not depron its extruded polystyrene that I've hot wired into sheets, tis good stuff and cheap.... this lot was free in fact :)

[Pasty]

Final build bit from yesterday.



A layer of vinyl type on the fuz, adds a bit of colour and a surprising amount of strength.

[Coyote]

Looking sweet Steve :)

[Shikra]

Very coolio. Like the basic look. Hope it flies well

[Pasty]

thanks

Looks are born purely through necessity, high wing and tail for stability and ground clearance, chunky rugged fuz for inner space and external mounting surface area.

Its a 54" span and I cant remember how long the fuz is as I made it up as I went along, I'm looking something like 800-900g all up weight but who knows at this stage.

onwards!

[Badlands]

Where'd you get your vinyl tape from Steve? (please dont say a skip!)


:-)

[Pasty]

lol... I did get it from a skip!! It was outside work but a skip none the less :D

I got about 40 rolls of the stuff, its awesome tape, with a bit of heat its shapes/shrinks around anything... sticks well too... Just a shame its all red!

[Badlands]

It looks orange in your pics.

I guess im skip diving then!

lol

[Pasty]

tail covered and on...

[Pasty]

Wings covered in yet more red vinyl tape.



Servo pockets and wire channels cut and servos stuck in.



More red tape to clean things up.



Tail servos, horns and links slung on.



Wheels!



Motor and ESC on, yes I know the props on wrong, its off my scout wing just for mock up.



Hope to have her finished today ready for flight tests tomorrow.

[Pasty]

I just weighed her all up shes 1150g's with about 150's of FPV gear to go on... bit heavier than I would have liked but should be cool.

[DPS-Dave]

Looking great steve and very red can't see you loosing sight of this little baby on an over cast day  ;D

[WSWhitby]

Hi,
Good decision to drop the original idea of steerable Trike. Tail dragger's are the dogs, simpler and more robust particularly on the site I fly from. Never seen a trike in our club that didn't have a bent nose wheel. Do I see flaps as well ?
Looks what I call a "proper job me hansome" ticks most of the boxes Home built, cheap, simple and I am sure will fly OK . "If they look OK they fly OK" most times.

Keep up the scavenging  or as the recyclers call it recycling.

Regards

John